Chechen prime minister hospitalized after car crash in Moscow
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-18 15:42

Chechnya's prime minister has been hospitalized after a car crash in Moscow and is in a serious but stable condition, NTV television reported Friday.

Sergei Abramov is the second most senior official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration. The accident occurred overnight when the car in which Abramov was traveling collided with a truck, NTV reported.

The Moscow traffic police confirmed the incident, but said it had no further details.

A spokesman for the Chechen administration in Moscow, Ziyad Sabsabi, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency that Abramov was conscious and had several ribs broken.

The accident happened on a road leading into Moscow from the western outskirts of the city, NTV said.

Abramov was appointed prime minister of the restive southern Russian republic, where a conflict has raged for most of the past decade, in March 2004.

In July 2004, a roadside bomb tore through Abramov's motorcade as it was passing through the Chechen capital, Grozny. Abramov was not injured, but one of his bodyguards was killed and three other people were wounded.